Regional Fund expenditure in Kerry
The Minister said fund receipts reimburse public capital programme spending rather than being spent directly in a county, and reported £13.961 million allocated for Kerry since 1975. The remaining annual figures were deferred to the next Order Paper.
asked the Minister for Finance the amount of the European Regional Fund which has been spent in Kerry; the amount for the last four years; and the portion of the total spent on industrial development.
Comment on this
It is not altogether meaningful to speak of receipts from the European Regional Development Fund being spent in a particular area. Receipts from the fund accrue to the Exchequer as partial reimbursement of expenditure already made through the public capital programme and are used to increase the overall level of resources available for regional development through the public capital programme. Since the fund was set up in 1975 a total of IR£13.961 million has been allocated from the fund in respect of expenditure in County Kerry under the public capital programme. The amounts for 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 were IR£0.671 million, IR£1.818 million, IR£2.150 million and IR£5.795 million respectively. The portion of the total since 1975 allocated for industrial development was IR£3.121 million. As I have said — and I repeat what I said in the beginning — it is not very meaningful to speak of receipts from the European Regional Development Fund being spent in a particular area.
